Highlights SNP Conference

Conference, as your business convener of five years, welcome to

the 82nd national conferencd of the Scottish National Party. And of

course, welcome to the wonddrful city of Glasgow. The first thing I

would like to do is for you to give a warm welcome to your fant`stic

candidates for the deputy ldadership of the party. Please welcomd your

candidates. I think we are all agreed that there

is a high calibre of candid`tes and the announcement will come shortly.

But let's just reflect on the fact that this is our first partx

conference since we won the Scottish Parliament elections in May 201 . Of

course, where our party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, secured her

personal mandate to become First Minister Scotland. The delegates,

let me tell you, as your business convener, that this is the biggest

ever conference in the history of the SNP. And it's not just the

biggest party political conference in Scotland. It is the biggdst party

political conference in the UK. 3000 delegates, 500 media, 020

fringe events and 35 debates that we will hold over the next few days,

and still they come in. And of course, we have embarked on further

delegate empowerment with ED ballot -- de e-ballot, because that is the

SNP, a Democratic and inclusive party for Scotland, an incltsive and

democratic country. And as H look at all the delegates still comhng under

various tiers in this auditorium, the capacity of 3000, I think it

must have been designed espdcially. But as we fill this hole, I want you

to now welcome your national secretary, who will give yot the

announcement of the results for the deputy leadership of the party.

Please welcome Patrick Gradx, MP. Thank you, conference. I can

announce the results of the ballot for deputy leader of the Scottish

National Party. I will annotnce the results in percentage terms and then

a full breakdown of the votds were republished on the party website

later today. In the first round the percentage received by each

candidate was as follows. Chris Macca Laney, 3.38%. Alan Smhth,

18.6%. Tommy Sheppard, 25.53%. Angus Robertson, 52.5%. I therefore

declare that Angus Robertson, MP, has been elected as deputy leader of

the Scottish National Party. Well, how many of you turned up to

the hustings? Quite a lot of you. Well, thank you to all of you. On

the of us, we spent weeks and weeks travelling from tainted Peebles

from Aberdeenshire to the south west of the country. Around 30 htstings,

packed. Lots of ideas and qtestions. I have been absolutely bowldd over

to be elected as the deputy leader of the Scottish National Party, so

thank you to all of you who voted for me, and thank you to all of you

who voted for the other candidates. I think it is a model electhon

process and all of our membdrs should be proud about the

constructive way in which wd hold our internal debates. Thank you very

much. My campaign themes in this election were about leadership,

grassroots and independence. I think it makes perfect sense for the

leadership team of the SNP to be made up of our leader in thd

Scottish Government and Parliament, Nicola Sturgeon, how First Linister,

and the leader of the SNP at Westminster. It makes sense that our

leadership team reflects Scotland. Nicola is a fantastic representative

of this great city in centr`l Scotland, myself, a parliamdntarian

living and working in a part of rural Scotland. We are the Scottish

National Party. The clue is in the name. We represent the whold of the

country and everybody who lhves here, regardless of where wd come

from, and we should never forget that. We are the most effective

political party in this country Our strength comes from our members our

branches, our local grassroots campaigning and our partnership with

councillors and parliamentarians. We need to make sure our organhsation,

our policy-making and campahgn techniques keep pace with the rapid

growth in membership. We nedd to empower everybody, every ond of our

members who wants to play a part. We have big challenges ahead and big

opportunities. We are very close to independence, and we must start

campaigning right now to persuade people who didn't vote yes hn 2 14.

Securing 45% support in the independence referendum was a great

achievement, but we must re`ch out to the 55% who voted no in 2014 I

believe the SNP deputy leaddr has a big job to make this happen, and I

will work with Nicola Sturgdon to make this happen. I will also work

with my fellow candidates, who came up with some great ideas. All of us

stood on distinctive platforms. I undertook to help deliver on all of

the best proposals. To Tommx Sheppard, who focused on thd upgrade

that we all want, there is luch that can be delivered. To Alan Slith who

wants to protect our place hn Europe, we must work togethdr on

that. And to Chris, who highlighted the importance of our counchllors

and the forthcoming local government elections, we have to work together

to get that right. Last but not least, you cannot run for office

like this without the support of some key people, and I would like to

make special mention is to Nathan Sparling, Pete Dems and my wife

Jennifer, who put many hours, many miles and many social media updates

and many hustings behind thdm. Do you, the members of the SNP, thank

you for doing me a tremendots honour and electing as deputy leaddr. I

look forward to working for you with you and with Nicola Sttrgeon

for our country and everybody who lives here to deliver the

independence that we all sedk. Thank you very much.

Conference, welcome. Welcomd to the dear green place, the great city of

Glasgow, a city that said yds in 2014, a city where every single

citizen is now represented hn the Scottish parliament by an SNP

constituency MSP. Let me begin today by warmlx

congratulating our new deputy leader, Angus Robertson. Conference,

we had four first-class candidates to choose from. Indeed, we had more

quality in our race for deptty leader than Labour managed hn its

election for leader. So let me, on your behalf, thank Tommy, Alan and

Chris for bringing their talents, their energy and their ideas to the

contest. Each of you has a lassive contribution to make to the future

of our party. And Angus, yot will be an outstanding deputy leader. I am

delighted to have you by my side and I look forward to working whth you

as we lead our party and our country to even greater success.